One of the (United-ish) opposition platforms for their next term in opposition has been stated as creating more anti-corruption laws as outlined here.

As I wrote only a few days ago, Ukraine does not need more anti-corruption laws. It has plenty.

In fact, not only does Ukraine have plenty of anti-corruption laws, the laws it has are actually more than adequate on a pan-European basis. The Global Integrity Index ranks Ukrainian anti-corruption laws at 100 from a scale of 0 (being non-existant) to 100 (being very good). That score of 100 ranks Ukrainian anti-corruption laws alongside Germany.

Therefore more anti-corruption laws are simply not needed as I have said. They exist in abundance and have been ranked highly by independent NGOs.

Why the (United-ish) opposition parties feel that drafting even more anti-corruption laws are necessary I am unsure.

Any government of any colour or stripe can write whatever laws they like in the RADA and pass them – and they have relating to corruption – but as I have written before on more than one occasion (so many in fact there are far too many to link to, so just put “effective implementation” into the search facility of the blog), it doesn’t matter what laws you bring into force if those laws are not effectively implemented – and no Ukrainian government has ever managed to effectively implement the anti-corruption laws they pass.

So, if the actual laws Ukraine already have are assessed as being as good as those in Germany, why are the opposition going to write even more?

What the opposition need to do is sit down and work out an achievable implementation plan for what already exists, some of which they wrote when in power not long ago, and encourage the government, civil society, media, society and foreign partners to back the plan.

As long as the plan is possible to implement effectively, then be noisy about it for their entire time in opposition if necessary. Adding even more statutory anti-corruption laws to what exists is an absolutely and completely pointless exercise if like all the other anti-corruption laws, it will simply exist on paper and not in practice.

Ineffective or counterproductive implementation makes even the best laws and policies mute.

Effective heavily publicised strategies for implementation of what good laws already exist should be a major priority for the opposition at every media opportunity, and that is very likely to get far more cross party support throughout the RADA sooner or later.

After all, as a minority, getting any new laws passed that are drafted by themselves is not going to be easy – voicing effective implementation strategies and monitoring the results for those anti-corruption laws that already exist, is well within their ability.

As I have said for many years, effective implementation is where all Ukrainian governments fail – massively. A point that the Global Integrity NGO also notes as where Ukraine fails.